Luke 1:26-38
“Overshadowed”
The Rev. Victoria Millar
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Covenant Presbyterian Church
Racine, WI
Luke 1:26-38
26 In the sixth
month [of
the
angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called
27to a virgin engaged to a man whose name
was Joseph, of the house of David.
The virgin’s name was Mary.
28And he came to her
and said, ‘Greetings, favoured one! The Lord is with
you.’*
29But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of
greeting this might be.
30The angel said to
her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour
with God.
31And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will
name him Jesus.
32He will be great, and will be called the
Son of the Most High,
and the Lord God will give to him the
throne of his ancestor David.
33He will reign over the house of Jacob for
ever,
and of his kingdom there will be no end.’
34Mary said to the
angel, ‘How can this be, since I am a virgin?’*
35The angel said to
her, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you,
and the power of the Most High will
overshadow you;
therefore the child to be born* will be holy;
he will be called Son of God.
36And now, your relative
and this is the sixth month for her who was
said to be barren.
37For nothing will be impossible with God.’
38Then Mary said,
‘Here am I, the servant of the Lord;
let it be with me according to your word.’ Then the angel departed from
her.
The word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
A one frame cartoon shows Mary sitting with the infant Jesus on her lap, Joseph standing at her side,
all three of them under the porch of the stable, livestock poking their heads out through the open door,
all of them looking dumbfounded--the parents, the animals and even the baby---
while a bearded fellow in sandals delivers bad news saying:
“Sorry, folks, but your insurance doesn’t cover more than one night in the manger.”
The line from the cartoon would have fit with last week’s pageant, Covenant’s Christmas play.
In the play, a teenage Sunday school class is told they are in charge of the Christmas play
and need to write a modernized version of the nativity so children can better understand the story.
As they work, their ideas are enacted by Covenant’s younger children in full pageant costumes,
as if the writer's imaginations come alive on stage beside them.
The fun is that as they brainstorm it’s like outtakes.
Only the parents realize the kids are channeling Henny Youngman
when Joseph, first approached the innkeeper saying:
“We just flew in from Nazareth, and boy, are our arms tired!”
And Joseph to the innkeeper pleading: “Take my wife---please!”
Over and over, after all the wordplay and experimenting, as each scene ends,
the students decide the original scripture is too good to replace.
In the original scripture:
28The angel Gabriel came
to Mary and said, ‘Greetings, favoured one! The Lord
is with you.’*
29But she was much perplexed by his words
and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.
When JD Millar taught his class about the first Christmas,
he showed a PowerPoint presentation of paintings from around the world
including John Collier, a contemporary artist
who was bold to paint Mary, not in an ancient setting but in American suburbia.
Mary is standing outside the front door, as if responding to the doorbell.
She is shown in profile, dressed in a schoolgirl’s uniform, a blue jumper over a white shirt,
wearing white socks and saddle shoes.
Her hair is pulled back in a dark ponytail.
All she lacks is bubblegum.
She is reading a red book, clutched so high it’s almost to her nose,
but over the top of the book she is staring wide-eyed
at the angel Gabriel, who looks like a young suburban priest with wings.
Like our pageant play, it’s an imaginative way to update the story.
And the painting startles us into considering how young Mary must have been.[1]
Years ago, JD and I were in Mexico for a mission trip.
And on the city street there was a group of pre-teen girls, all modest, neck to toe, in black dresses.
Maybe they were from a rural village left in the city to earn what they could.
All I know is I saw the same routine for several days.
All day long they sat near the same curb embroidering small velvet purses which they displayed for sale.
They worked late into the evening, even under the dim streetlamp.
Then they spent the night near the curb, asleep on the grass, huddled like puppies.
If I were an artist, that’s the Mary I would paint, one of those young girls--
a girl without privilege, without credentials, without power and without support.
That’s part of what I think Luke is saying, in Mary
Jesus chose to dwell with the poor and the humble,
even before he was born.
And if we go back to Luke in the real original scripture, if we go to the original Greek,
it’s a wooden translation but it’s interesting.
The Greek, word for word, in exact order says:
And said the
messenger (=angel) to her: No be
fearing, Mariam.
For you found grace-favor with God.
And be-perceiving (=lo!), you shall be
conceiving in the belly
and you shall be bringing forth a
son
and you shall be calling the name of him Jesus.
This one shall be great and shall be called
Son of the Most High.
And the Lord-Master God shall be giving to
him the throne of David, father of him.
And he shall be reigning over the house of
Jacob into the eons
and of the kingdom of him not shall
be finish.
And said yet Mariam
toward the messenger: How shall be this
since man I am not knowing?
And answering, the
messenger said to her: Spirit Holy shall
be coming on you
and power of the most High shall be
overshadowing you
wherefore also the One being generated out of you shall be called holy.
Out of all of that strangeness, it’s the overshadowing that intrigues me most.
The
Holy Spirit will come upon you
and the power of the most High will overshadow you.
What does overshadowing mean?
If you go looking through the art world, like JD did, searching from medieval to modern,
you can frequently find a scene of Gabriel and Mary
with a dove in mid-air above her head.[2]
The dove was one way to try to imagine the Holy Spirit.
Beautiful also are the paintings which try to show an aura.
One shows Mary and Gabriel bowing toward each other, enveloped by a gold whirlwind of light.
Another shows Mary sitting alone in her room, her eyes riveted on a pillar of fire
shimmering so close she is bathed in its light.[3]
Artists give us doves and light but no shadow did I find.
But I did find shadow in scripture.
Isaiah 51:16 God says: I have hidden you [my people] in the shadow of my hand.
Shadow can mean nearby to God, as close to God as God’s shadow.
Psalm 91:1 You who live in the shelter of the Most
High,
and abide in the shadow of the Almighty...
Shadow then can mean shelter.
To me, the paradox is that if the shadow of God is sheltering
so also did Mary provide shelter.
The incarnation is about a human being consenting to be the shelter for God
so that God could become flesh like us.
And if you’ve ever wondered not how, but why the incarnation, why did God become flesh,
one well-circulated story still seems to me helpful.
The story is of a compassionate man
with several birdfeeders stationed near his window where he delights to watch.
One winter night, a terrible storm moves in.
The wind howls. The temperature plummets.
Glued to his window, he notices many tiny birds clinging to his feeder.
He sees them unable to fly in the strong wind.
He believes they’ll freeze.
Aha! He thinks his garage would be a good place for them so he braves the storm and opens the doors.
But the birds do not move.
He wants to shoo them inside but when he approaches, all is fright and panic, no success.
He thinks: if only I were a bird, if only I was one of them.
Then I could lead them to safety from the storm.
The incarnation is about God’s great desire to lead us in ways we could understand.
Yes, leading us through the storms
but also giving strength to our hearts,
a shared center for our lives.
and joy for our days.
Even more, I believe, the incarnation is about presence,
about God coming to us as closely as possible, even under our skins.
From the gospel according to Luke:
[Gabriel said to Mary:]
37For nothing will be
impossible with God.’
38Then Mary said, ‘Here am I, the servant of
the Lord;
let it be with me according to your word.’
In last week’s play, that same scene begins with Covenant’s nine-year-old Mary
testing these affirmative responses.
· She said: I’m your lady!
· She said: Bring it!
· She said: Where do I sign?
·
At last, she said: Behold, God’s servant. Let it be
to me according to God’s will.
I wonder if there are many Gabriels, visiting my rooms and yours, if we but had the eyes to see.
I wonder if every Gabriel is offering us God’s often risky new plan.
I wonder if each Gabriel is announcing a brave, new change God would like to bring forth in us,
a brave, new commitment God would like to grow in us.
But, lo, be-perceiving!
Our days will be more fruitful and more creative,
our days will be more life-giving,
if, even shaking, we have moments when we can reply to Gabriel:
Where do I sign?
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,
the Lord God, the Incarnate Son and the Holy Spirit overshadowing. Amen.